Leading British online fashion retailer ASOS (As Seen on Screen) met forecasts with an 18% rise in first-half profit and said it was on track to achieve its sales and margin guidance for the full year.
Established in 2000 for fashion-conscious twentysomethings, ASOS was an early e-commerce success story, but is seeing growing competition from the likes of Rocket Internet's Zalando and British rival Boohoo, as well as from traditional store-based chains improving their online offerings.
ASOS said on Tuesday it made a pretax profit of 21.2 million pounds ($30.2 million) in the six months to Feb. 29, in line with analysts' average forecast and up from 18 million pounds in the same period last year.
Retail sales rose 24% on a constant currency basis to 648.6 million pounds, as the firm grew its active customer base by 17% to 10.9 million. UK sales rose 25%, while international sales were up 24% overall.
ASOS said investment in technology and logistics was bearing fruit, delivering 21% growth in visits to its sites and growth in average order frequency, basket value and conversion.
"I'm pleased to confirm that we are on track to achieve our previously stated sales and margin guidance for the full year," said Chief Executive Nick Beighton who took over last September from founder Nick Robertson.
In October, ASOS forecast sales growth for 2015-16 of about 20% and a maintained operating margin of 4%.
